


The Last Book on Earth

by nerdyrose24



Category: Doctor Strange (Comics), Doctor Strange (movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Benedict Cumberbatch - Freeform, F/M, Original Story - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:15:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24075802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdyrose24/pseuds/nerdyrose24
Summary: I went to do some writing exercises and was inspired to write this by the prompts: "You knock louder and louder but nothing happens." "I open the last book on Earth." and "Out of the ashes arose a hero."I’d give a summary of the story, but the title pretty much says it all.
Relationships: Stephen Strange/Zelma Stanton
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	The Last Book on Earth

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I was in the mood for Doctor Strange today! I guess if marvel isn’t gonna make Doctor Strange 2 any time soon, I should do it myself. *haha* *sigh*
> 
> Another note: I imagine this story as taking place in the period where Chris Bachalo was doing the Doctor Strange comics.

I thundered down Bleeker Street that morning, seeing a burnt-up bookshop, gaping holes in people’s houses and schools, all with trails of cindering paper leading out onto the street. I blamed myself, first and foremost, for getting involved with a weird guy like Doctor Strange. I’m a librarian, or I was. Reading books is supposed to make you smart, I guess it just made me too trusting and filled my head with crazy fantasies. Yes, Zelma, lets run around after the creepy older man whose food looks like it should be eating him. After all, I do owe him after he saved me from the space maggots that had taken up residence on my forehead. Something like this was destined to happen. 

Let’s rewind. You’re probably wondering what exactly is going on, which is a common feature of my life nowadays. 

*****

I’d been, uh, assisting Doctor Strange for a few months now and, until recently, my personal life was seriously suffering as a result. On his advice, I’d kept my job but told my boss I needed to go part time because of “personal reasons”. She was not pleased. During each of my recent sporadic visits to work, she made damn sure I knew that she had someone else lined up to take my job. 

The Doc had been away for a while. Wong assured me it was normal for his master to disappear for a few days. Anyway, I was grateful to have the time to get back to something “normal” of my own. As a matter of fact, I was doing pretty great: my boss had stopped scowling at me; I had time to meet up with non-magical friends and also have some time to myself. This morning I even got to work early. Although apparently, I was not the first. 

The doors were gone; the glass shards had rained down onto the pavement. When I walked in, the books were gone too – they’d been incinerated. My mouth made an “O” shape, and I cursed under my breath as I tentatively walked around. The floor was smudged with the charred edges of thousands of hardbacks and the whole place stank with the dying embers of millions of words. 

“Was it kids?” I asked quietly and to no one in particular. As I turned a corner, I saw a giant brand that covered the whole wall. It was intricate, like a map and glowing green. That’s when I knew, it wasn’t kids. This was something far stranger.

*****

I was exhausted by the time I reached the end of Bleeker Street yet wasted no time in slamming my fists into the doors of the Sanctum Sanctorum. “Doc!” I shouted. “You better be in there! Wong! Doctor Strange!” There was no answer. 

I was so mad at him, by that point. The way I saw it, whoever was destroying the books (obviously somebody magical or other-worldy), was clearly after them because Doctor Strange was hanging around with a guardian and lover of books like me. Taking a couple of steps back, my ears picked up the loud crackling noise, and I looked and saw the blazing inferno inside the Doc’s library. All those spells, all that knowledge, gone. 

There was something in the fire. A shape – white and wavering but unmistakably familiar. “Zelma.” The astral form of Doctor Strange floated out of the red glare of the fire and landed in front of me. 

“Doc! What is going on?!” 

“Almost all the books in existence have been destroyed.” I gulped. He raised his right hand to show me a heavy-looking, leather-bound tome, the edges of which glowed with the reflection of Doctor Strange's ghostly light. “What I have here is the last book on planet Earth. A little over a week ago, I noticed some magical disturbances over in Tibet and I’ve been investigating. I’ve watched as one by one, vaults filled with tomes of irreplaceable knowledge burst into flames, seemingly of their own accord. Now, I’m pretty sure it’s a spell. Only this book is immune. I found it at one of the massacre sites, unscathed. Unfortunately, it’s also not a spell I’m familiar with as it ripped through my own defences for my library.” His eyes lowered slightly before he sighed and turned the tome as if to hand it to me. “Zelma, I need you to protect this for me. Within it could lie the key to fixing all this.” 

I saw then that brand on the cover of the book. I took it and clutched it to my chest with my two arms. “This mark,” I said. “It had been branded onto one of the walls of my library where the books were all gone.” 

With a faraway look in his eyes, the Doc stared at something beyond my shoulder. I felt the instinct to look back and check that no bad guys were creeping up behind me, but he wasn’t worried exactly, more troubled. “I know”, he said. “I’ll be back. Soon, I promise.” Then I saw the gaping hole in his chest, the blackness cutting through the white sheet of his astral form.

“Doc?” I reached my hand out even though I knew I couldn’t help. I couldn’t even touch him. 

He closed his eyes. “I got into a fight. I called Wong, he’s here patching me up.”

“Here? Where’s here? Where are you?” I was getting frantic, but he ignored me. Instead he let his eyes bore into mine from across dimensions.

“In meditation, I saw what happened at your library and mine and I knew you’d come here.” Doctor Strange winced. “I’m counting on you, Zelma, the whole world may be counting on you. Do not let anyone near this book. I’ll be back soon” 

And then, he was gone – disappeared into nothing. I was left to carry the weight of the world. The temptation was strong – too strong. Thus, with trembling hands and nerves, I opened the last book in the world.


End file.
